ASP World Tour: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 19:01, 24 April 2007
 | This article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. |
World Championship Tour Surfing is a surfing tournament circuit organized by the Association of Surfing Professionals. The ASP is the Association of Surfing Professionals. It is the foremost governing body in professional surfing. It boasts the sanctioning of six professional surfing circuits including: the ASP World Tour, the ASP World Qualifying Series (WQS), the ASP World Longboard Tour (WLT), the ASP Pro Junior Series, the World Masters Championship, and Specialty Events. The WCT has ruined surfing by taking a lifestyle based on freedom and expression and trying to make it into a competitive, soulless, spectator sport that tries to objectify a subjective artform. Additionally, the WCT has over exposed and blown up surf spots that have, for decades intentionally remained secret, for the sake of capitalizing financially without acknowledging the future consequences to the fragile locations.
History
Back in the '60s when the first structured competitions were introduced to the sport, the guys and gals all did it for love and ego. There was no sponsorship, certainly no surfing industry, just a bunch of teenagers who gathered intermittently and pitted their respective skills against each other.
This was truly the amateur era. It is hard to think of greats such as Midget Farrelly, Joey Cabell, Mike Doyle and Bob McTavish as amateurs, but the truth of it is that after winning their respective National Championships and various international meets, there wasn't much else for them.
While the camaraderie and spirit were rich, there was very little in the way of monetary compensation from endorsements, and certainly no prize money. The rewards were personal achievement, and in line with all amateur sport of the era, time at the top was limited.
As we went from the swinging, counter culture '60s into the '70s, isolated pockets of structured competition surfing began to emerge. Hawaii was already well along the road to professionalism, with events such as the Smirnoff Pro, The Duke Kahanamoku Classic, and the Pipeline Masters offering around $10,000 in prize money.
The new superstars of the sport were Jeff Hakman, Reno Abellera and Gerry Lopez. These surfers, along with Nat Young and David Nuuiwa, were supplementing their prize money with endorsement contracts.
While the surfing industry was in its formative stages in Australia, Hawaii and Japan, and not even on the distant horizon in Europe and South America, it was well established in California. Riding on the coat tails of Gidget, the beach boys and the surf craze of the '60s, labels had established themselves and were turning to the heroes of the day to identify the public to their branding.
By the mid 70s events had popped up from Sydney to Rio, from Florida to Durban. This loose knit belt of tournaments was strung together in 1976 in what would prove to be the embryonic stage of ASP. The very first pro surfing governing body IPS crowned Peter Townend the very first pro surfing world champion and he was followed by Shaun Tomson (ZAF), Wayne Bartholomew and of course the legendary four time world champion Mark Richards. Between the four of them they ushered in the new era, and by 1984 the tour had expanded to in excess of 20 internationally rated events.
Tom Carroll and Tom Curren soon pushed to the forefront of the sport and their contribution, plus a booming surf industry, paved the way for enormous growth. With over 60 pro events worldwide, the ASP introduced a two-tiered system of ratings in 92, incorporating the Top 44, who automatically qualified for what was then called the World Championship Tour. A World Qualifying Series, (WQS), was also introduced to feed the top tour with 16 people dropping off at year's end to be replaced by red hot WQS aspirants.
After several years of consolidation, ASP then took aim in a dynamic direction. In a somewhat radical departure from the '80s and early '90s tour look, event promoters were encouraged to stage top tour events at prime surf locations.
The industry caught on quickly, the big-name labels, as part of a global promotional strategy, began positioning their respective events at such exotic locations as Grajagan in Java Indonesia,, Jeffreys Bay in South Africa, Mundaka in the Basque Country, Tavarua in Fiji, Teahupoo in Tahiti and Trestles in California.
The policy then evolved so that events were shifted in the schedule to be held in the right peak swell season, with a waiting period or swell window, with the objective being to place the world's best surfers in the world's best waves.
Giant international beer brewer Foster's have seen the return in investment in the sport and have once again signed on as tour naming rights sponsor for 2007.
That shift in focus is a far cry from the '80s and early '90s when ASP World Tour events were staged at metropolitan beaches in the middle of summer, with the objective of filling grandstands and getting butts on beaches. Too bad the surf did not pump until the fall, and many grandstand events, locked into a Sunday afternoon finish, were subject to consistently poor surf.
There are still some grandstand events on the calendar, maintaining the public face of the sport as well as the all-important public accessibility to the world's best surfers.
The new ASP, however, has implemented a formula that literally beams these insane images of the world's elite pros at the world's most dynamic surf venues, directly into the global lounge room.
The main thrust of this is an association with our broadcasting partner TWI who produce quality television packages including a 52-minute highlight TV show (beamed to 296 million lounge rooms) plus daily highlight news feeds from events which are uplinked by satellite to global networks.
On top of this we have been at the forefront of the LIVE webstreaming from events sites, which without delay are delivered directly to the desktops of anyone with access to a modem. This in itself has changed the face of the sport, as second-t-none- images of the best of the best are now accessible to one and all regardless of where an event is held.
In 2007 the umbrella will extend to include all disciplines of the sport. The World Longboard Tour will be held in Costa Rica and France, The Billabong World Junior Championships will again be held at Narrabeen and the ASP Masters will take place in Brazil.
While the rest of the circus circumnavigates the globe we also have the ASP Women's World Tour taking a similar approach to the guys. In recent years there has been an influx of talent and in 2007 we can expect the new guard to stand up and bee counted. Watch the girls as they perform in Australia, Brazil, Spain, and Hawaii.
There is an air of maturity about ASP these days. Having been around for 31 years the sport is developing a deep and enriched heritage not unlike that of more mainstream sports. With a truly professional out look, incredibly efficient business processes and practices plus healthy relationships with some outstanding business partners and events we are sure that in 2007 ASP's success will be immeasurable.
2006 Men's World Tour
Schedule
2006 Foster’s ASP World Tour Final Ratings
| Rank | Name | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kelly Slater |  United States
|
8124 |
| 2 | Andy Irons | United States
|
6948 |
| 3 | Mick Fanning |  Australia
|
6828 |
| 4 | Taj Burrow | Australia
|
6480 |
| 5 | Bobby Martinez | United States
|
6350 |
| 6 | Joel Parkinson | Australia
|
6240 |
| 7 | Damien Hobgood | United States
|
6096 |
| 8 | Tom Whitaker | Australia
|
5138 |
| 9 | Taylor Knox | United States
|
4880 |
| 10 | Dean Morrison | Australia
|
4856 |
2006 Women's World Tour
Schedule
Current Rankings
Past ASP Tours
2005 World Rankings
| Rank | Name | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Layne Beachley | Australia
|
6374 |
| 2 | Melanie Redman-Carr | Australia
|
5802 |
| 3 | Chelsea Georgeson | Australia
|
5797 |
| 4 | Jessi Miley-Dyer | Australia
|
4440 |
| 5 | Sofia Mulanovich |  Peru
|
4105 |
| 6 | Rebecca Woods | Australia
|
3794 |
| 7 | Claire Bevilacqua | Australia
|
3564 |
| 8 | Keala Kennelly | Template:HAW | 3516 |
| 9 | Silvana Lima |  Brazil
|
3408 |
| =10 | Megan Abubo | Template:HAW | 2196 |
| Rank | Name | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kelly Slater | United States
|
| 2 | Andy Irons | United States
|
| 3 | Mick Fanning | Australia
|
| 4 | Damien Hobgood | United States
|
| 5 | Phillip MacDonald | Australia
|
| 6 | Trent Munro | Australia
|
| 7 | Taj Burrow | Australia
|
| 8 | Nathan Hedge | Australia
|
| 9 | Bruce Irons | United States
|
| 10 | C.J. Hobgood | United States
|
Past World Champions
| Year | Name | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Peter Townend | Australia
|
| 1977 | Shaun Tomson |  South Africa
|
| 1978 | Wayne Bartholomew | Australia
|
| 1979 | Mark Richards | Australia
|
| 1980 | Mark Richards | Australia
|
| 1981 | Mark Richards | Australia
|
| 1982 | Mark Richards | Australia
|
| 1983 | Tom Carroll | Australia
|
| 1984 | Tom Carroll | Australia
|
| 1985 | Tom Curren | United States
|
| 1986 | Tom Curren | United States
|
| 1987 | Damien Hardman | Australia
|
| 1988 | Barton Lynch | Australia
|
| 1989 | Martin Potter |  United Kingdom
|
| 1990 | Tom Curren | United States
|
| 1991 | Damien Hardman | Australia
|
| 1992 | Kelly Slater | United States
|
| 1993 | Derek Ho | United States
|
| 1994 | Kelly Slater | United States
|
| 1995 | Kelly Slater | United States
|
| 1996 | Kelly Slater | United States
|
| 1997 | Kelly Slater | United States
|
| 1998 | Kelly Slater | United States
|
| 1999 | Mark Occhilupo | Australia
|
| 2000 | Sunny Garcia | United States
|
| 2001 | C.J Hobgood | United States
|
| 2002 | Andy Irons | United States
|
| 2003 | Andy Irons | United States
|
| 2004 | Andy Irons | United States
|
| 2005 | Kelly Slater | United States
|
| 2006 | Kelly Slater | United States
|
External links
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